2011 World Superbike – Portimao Photos

See photos from Round 13 of the 2011 World Superbike Series at the Portimao circuit in Portugal.

Aprilia's Max Biaggi barely held on to third overall in the championship after finishing seventh in Race 2.

Castrol Honda's Jonathan Rea dominated the final Superpole of the season at Portimao ahead of Carlos Checa.

Carlos Checa was only 0.087 seconds ahead of Eugene Laverty during Friday qualifying in Portugal.

Kawasaki's David Salom was the fasest Supersport rider after ending the day just 0.006 seconds faster than Luca Scassa.

Leon Camier - 2011 Portimao World Superbike

Max Biaggi: "Unfortunately an error in judgement means that I’m forced to start from deep on the grid, just one more difficulty for the two races tomorrow. Rather than a set up problem, it is more a lack of feeling after being out for three rounds, while the others kept racing and improving over the past 40 days. I’ve paid for my injury. Now I'll take this race as more practice, trying to bring home as much as possible."

Leon Camier: "I was never able to get in a really good lap. That is why I'm in twelfth place, which is not where I had hoped to be. I take a bit of comfort in my race pace... we're not far off the best times over the long distance."

2011 WSB champ Carlos Checa snagged his 15th victory of the season at Portimao and earned the Constructors title for Ducati.

Marco Melandri crushed his teammate's hopes by taking the lead away and eventually winning the final race of the season.

After getting a great start from 17th on the grid in the first race, Max Biaggi had a poor launch in the final contest of the season and eventually finished seventh.

Carlos Checa (#7) put up a strong fight against Sylvain Guintoli (#50) in the final round to claim his 15th victory of 2011.

Carlos Checa: "Before Race 1 it looked like there was no way that I could stay with Althea Racing in 2012 and I was very upset about this but now it seems that Althea Racing and Ducati have come to an agreement and I am over the moon to hear that I can stay with my team and with my bike again next year."

Max Biaggi: "The fifth place final time is well above my expectations, considering the three missed races and the pain in my foot. I hit neutral more than once because of the pain which is concentrated on the point of contact with the shift lever and prevents me from being decisive."

Max Biaggi - 2011 Portimao World Superbike

Leon Camier: "Starting from behind it’s always difficult to recover positions, especially in Race 1 because in the first stages I lost time going wide. I would have liked to end this experience on the podium. Unfortunately we weren’t able to demonstrate our true potential this year."

Yamaha ParkinGO's Chaz Davies added another win to his championship winning season at Portimao.

Sylvain Guintoli - Portimao World Superbike 2011

Yamaha's Eugene Laverty was less than a tenth behind Checa as he fights for a third-place finish in the series this weekend.

Eugene Laverty (#58) just missed the podium in the championship after being passed by his teammate, Marco Melandri (#33), in Race 2.

Marco Melandri - 2011 Portimao World Superbike

Jonathan Rea - 2011 Portimao World Superbike

Jonathan Rea - 2011 World Superbike Portimao

Jonathan Rea: "It was nice to be able to challenge for victory in both races, although I think in Race 2 it was pretty clear where we were losing out to the others. I felt I rode well and the bike was working great in some sectors, but not in others where we needed it to. This year’s been such a journey for me, with a lot of ups and downs, so it’s just great to go into the off season with no injuries and the bike on the podium."

Spaniard David Salom put his Kawasaki on top during World Supersport qualifying at Portimao.